Barney Spender : Rugby
Springbokphobia. Resentment of rugby matters South African. Often to be found in conjunction with salivating hagiographic adoration of All things Black.
Not a new illness by any means but Springbokphobia has absorbed the British ever since South Africa had the temerity to beat New Zealand in the World Cup final two years ago.
Originally it had something to do with the ungracious, objectionably supermacist manner of certain Springbok supporters but now it appears to be a mixture of personal disdain for Louis Luyt and a view that the Boks are a cynical, heavy-fisted team pumped up to the eyeballs with steroids.
There were, of course, drugs problems in the past but the South Africans have been forceful in dealing with them. As for the physical, it is perhaps best to note Nick Mallett’s comments after Toks van der Linde was sent off when he crudely stamped on the head of one of the French Barbarians.
“I played in France for nine years and I encountered far more dirty play than I ever did in my time playing in South Africa,” he said. “We don’t have a violence problem in South Africa but we are not intelligent about the way we go about things. We are not cerebral enough.”
Strangely, Sean Fitzpatrick, New Zealand’s excellent captain, is one of the most cerebral players around. The British media is quick to overlook All Black aberrations and the “99” call of 1974 Lions has passed into jovial reminiscence. Martin Johnsons’s one-match ban for a punch from behind on Justin Marshall was given just a couple of paragraphs when you can be certain that, had it been the other way around, it would have merited a major spread.
For the most part, the Boks have been accorded a quiet reception as if their demolition of the Five Nations champions in Paris last week was but a dream. All the talk has been about the All Blacks and the first Test against England at the weekend. True, they remain, as Mallett and Gary Teichmann have admitted, the yardstick for international rugby but the fixation with their prowess is faintly sickening.
They are, the newspapers blared after the game, so good that a 25-8 defeat at their hands can, in fact, be considered some kind of moral victory. Hands are being rubbed in anticipation of the second Test at Twickenham next week. What a shame that a Test against the world champions gets in the way.
By all accounts England did, actually, play quite well but they will dismiss the Boks at their peril. To their mind, it is essentially the same side that the Lions beat and there were a number of Englishmen in that team, ergo no problem.
However, any resemblance to the Springbok team which lost its way against the Lions and against the All Blacks is purely coincidental. Mallett and Teichmann, whose role in unifying the team should not be underplayed, have quickly hit the right buttons to allow the Boks to play the fast, skilful game which the All Blacks made the rule last year.
In Paris they hit a new height. It is easier to denigrate the French performance, which certainly disintegrated, but that overlooks the fact that the Boks were magnificent. The French assistant coach Pierre Villepreux reckoned it was the best South African performance he had ever seen, while Mallett, barely able to conceal his joy, asked for some understanding from the home media. “Gentlemen, please don’t expect that every week,” he said. “Today we were touched by God.”
The problem for Mallett is that, in the same way as the 100m world record is forever being lowered, so the standards of rugby will rise. Having hit that peak, the Springboks must now be looking to go even higher, set a new personal best.
If they play even half as well, they ought to be good enough to beat an England side which is beginning its rebuilding process. The new coach Clive Woodward, who has inevitably drawn comparisons with Carel du Plessis, has a defeat by the All Blacks and a draw with Australia on his card at the moment and he would dearly love England to repeat their two previous Twickenham successes in 1969 and 1992.
The jury, though, is still out on the front five especially in the absence of Johnson. If they lose that battle it is hard to see them winning the match.
For the Boks, the real danger is arrogance and the feeling that the hard work ended in Paris. Mallett will doubtless wise them up on this score because a full Twickenham, with 75 000 Englishmen singing Swing Low can be as intimidating as the Parc de Princes.
A win would be welcome but greater than that would be the sight of the Boks taking on the English with the style and elan they showed against the French. That, at least, might go some way towards eliminating Springbokphobia. from these isles.